ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that after a decade of weak EU involvement in Central Asia, both the EU's influence and its contribution to region-building have been limited in the region, owing both to local and international factors. Central Asian republics were included in the EU policy toolbox designed in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union through PCAs, as well as the TACIS programme. In the case of Central Asia, the Presidency and the Council appeared to be the political entrepreneurs, while the Commission remained behind the scenes and the European Parliament played a marginal role. Compartmentalisation and differentiation are therefore major features of Central Asia's situation which make striking a balance with the regional dimension of EU policies difficult to achieve. For over a decade, Russia, China, and the United States, along with less influential powers, have started to play a new great game' around Centrasiatic countries.
